The Press: Something for Roberta

When fire destroyed her home in a Chicago suburb, 14-year-old Roberta
Lee Mason rescued four brothers & sisters. But she was burned so badly
that she had to be swathed in bandages from head to foot. Her
throat-catching picture (TIME, Feb. 28) made front pages across the
U.S. Soon money, clothes, even chewing gum began to pour in; everybody
wanted to "do something for Roberta." But what the Masons needed was a
new house.

Managing Editor Eliezer ("Lou") Shainmark of Hearst's Chicago
Herald-American saw a way to combine a good deed and a good story. He
got his labor editor to talk...